Is the silver coating of catheters effective?

Excerpt from the book

"The silver coating method developed by Billy Södervall and Thomas Lundeberg in the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s has constituted the basis for the multimillion incomes the “Meco Group” (Astrid Deeth and Gunnar Walstam) earlier had and that now have been taken over by Bactiguard AB (see chapter 7.3).

The application of this patented technology within health care, and especially in the production of urinary catheters, is based on the observation that a thin layer of silver on the inner and outer surfaces of the catheters reduces the risk of urinary infections (see chapter 4).

The studies performed in the end of the 1980s by Thomas Lundeberg in collaboration with Hans Liedberg and Peter Ekman in the urological clinic at the Karolinska Hospital (KS) were among the first in this field. In the clinical tests made within the project, the catheters that were used had been coated with silver by Thomas Lundeberg using reaction solutions prepared by Billy Södervall in Markaryd.

The technique used at this time differed in at least one important respect (a pre-treatment that improves the adhesion of silver) from the one later used in industrial scale by CR Bard Inc in the USA."